Evaluation of whole blood CD64 for identifying infection in neonates receiving hospital care.

Introduction: Infection remains one of the most common causes of death in neonates. However, early detection of neonatal infections to inform treatment decisions remains clinically and technically challenging due to the non-specific nature of symptoms, and the lack of a sufficiently accurate diagnostic test. Neonatal infections and sepsis in adults have been associated with increased CD64 expression on neutrophils.

Adapting the Grog survey app for alcohol screening and feedback in aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health services: a mixed methods study protocol.

Background: Routine use of brief, structured screening tools is essential to detect and provide support for Australians who drink above recommended levels. However, detecting drinking above recommended levels in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australian primary care settings is complex. Inaccuracies in completing a screening tool such as Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test - Consumption, can lead to errors in estimating drinking in First Nations contexts where group sharing and episodic drinking make it difficult to accurately estimate alcohol consumption with tools that assume regular drinking patterns.

ASSIST in Pitjantjatjara: Protocol for a randomised crossover validation study among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Background: Substance use significantly contributes to disease burden among Australians, with harms exacerbated among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples by colonisation-related factors like stigma and trauma. Addressing this gap requires culturally acceptable, valid and reliable screening tools, available in a familiar language to the participant, to identify and provide support for those at-risk. This protocol describes a study aimed at validating a culturally-adapted screening tool - the Alcohol, Smoking and Substance Involvement Screening Test (ASSIST) - into Pitjantjatjara, to detect risk of substance-related harm.

Coronary Artery Disease in People Living with HIV May Reflect Their Sensitivity to Inflammation Associated with Cytomegalovirus.

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) is implicated in cardiovascular disease in healthy adults and after transplantation, but analyses in people living with HIV (PLWH) are difficult as almost all have CMV co-infections. Here, we address whether coronary artery disease (CAD) is associated with levels of CMV-reactive antibodies or with sensitivity to inflammation associated with CMV. PLWH stable on antiretroviral therapy (ART) with a recent diagnosis of CAD were matched with PLWH without CAD.

Effects of antibiotic prophylaxis during labour on maternal and neonatal outcomes in women planning vaginal birth.

Rationale: Maternal sepsis is the third leading cause of maternal mortality globally. However, the risk of maternal sepsis can be reduced by administering antibiotics prophylactically before infection occurs. Previous research has assessed the effects of azithromycin prophylaxis during pregnancy, but evidence is lacking on the effects of other types of antibiotics, and the potential for antimicrobial resistance.

Screening and hit evaluation of a microbial metabolite library against the pathogenic Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma gondii parasites.

Frontline drug treatments for malaria are at risk of failing due to emerging resistance, meanwhile drugs used to treat toxoplasmosis have suboptimal efficacy and safety. As demonstrated by the success of clinically used antiparasitic drugs, the diverse structural complexity and biological activity of natural products holds great potential for drug discovery and development, to address the need for new compounds with novel mechanisms. Here we screened the BioAustralis Discovery Plates Series I library, a collection of 812 microbial natural product compounds including rare microbial metabolites, against Plasmodium falciparum erythrocytic stage and Toxoplasma gondii tachyzoite parasites.

HIV incidence and prevalence projections for Zimbabwe: Findings from five mathematical models.

: Understanding how HIV epidemics are likely to behave in the future is key to informing HIV response strategies in low-income countries. Up-to-date HIV epidemiological estimates are important for policy decision- making, but surveillance data can be out of date. This study compared forecasts from HIV epidemiological models.

Pathways to Adolescent Pregnancy in Southeast Asia: Qualitative Evidence From Lived Experiences of Girls in Four Countries.

Purpose: Historically, adolescent pregnancy has been conceptualized as an outcome of child marriage, but in Southeast Asia, the contexts and drivers of adolescent pregnancy are less well-understood. This study examines the relationship between adolescent pregnancy and child marriage and explores the drivers of pregnancy in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Malaysia among adolescents who have experienced pregnancy.

Methods: Using participatory timeline interviews, we conducted semistructured interviews with 260 adolescent girls aged 15-21 years with lived experience of pregnancy in urban and rural settings in Cambodia, Indonesia, Lao People's Democratic Republic and Malaysia.

Survey Questions on Quantity and Frequency Are Differentially Effective by Age in Predicting Future Alcohol Consumption.

Introduction: Cross sectional research has demonstrated that screening tool questions on frequency of alcohol consumption are a better predictor of dependence and harmful drinking in younger adults; questions about quantity per occasion are a better predictor in older adults. The aim of this study is to see if this relationship also holds longitudinally.

Methods: A total of 9076 respondents aged 15 and over completed at least two waves of the longitudinal annual Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia survey 10 years apart between 2001-2010 and 2012-2020.

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of levofloxacin therapy for household contacts of multidrug-resistant tuberculosis in Vietnam.

Background: Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (TB) threatens global TB control, on account of poor treatment outcomes, high treatment toxicity and costs. Recent trials demonstrated the effectiveness of six-months of levofloxacin (6Lfx) to prevent TB disease among high-risk contacts. However, the cost-effectiveness of this strategy has not previously been evaluated.

Qualitative analysis of barriers and facilitators to healthcare engagement for people with injecting-related invasive infections using a social ecological framework.

Background And Aims: Injecting-related bacterial infections are increasing in many countries. Systemic infections often require prolonged treatment. Evidence suggests that people who inject drugs who have invasive infections are less likely to complete antimicrobial treatment and have poorer outcomes than patients without a history of injecting drug use.

Acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of an expanded role for community health workers for malaria elimination in Myanmar: A mixed-method study.

As countries transition to malaria elimination many are considering expanding the role of dedicated malaria community health workers (CHWs) to provide both malaria and limited primary health care services. The acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of an expanded role for CHW are vital factors for the successful implementation and sustainability of this health care model and data are needed to inform policy change.To further inform an expanded CHW model for malaria elimination, a mixed-method study nested in a trial which demonstrated effectiveness was undertaken to determine the acceptability, feasibility and fidelity of an expanded role for CHW in Myanmar.

Developing a Co-Designed Strategy to Improve Labor Monitoring and Management in India Using the World Health Organization Labour Care Guide: A Mixed-Methods Formative Study.

Introduction: Nearly half of all perinatal deaths occur during the intrapartum period due to inadequate labor monitoring and intervention. The partograph, a paper-based labor monitoring tool, can assist providers in recognizing and acting on early signs of fetal-maternal distress if used effectively. In 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed a "next generation" partograph called the Labour Care Guide.

"It's like a book in the palm of my hand": Adapting the Safe Delivery App for Papua New Guinea to improve quality of maternal and newborn care.

Background: Health workers in many low- and middle-income countries are not adequately trained to provide quality antenatal and intrapartum care. The freely available Safe Delivery App (the App) provides health care professionals with direct and instant access to evidence-based, up-to-date clinical guidelines equipping them with an on-the-job reference guide, even in the most remote areas. In this paper we describe the uptake and acceptability and the process to align the App in Papua New Guinea (PNG).

Galectin-3 gene deletion alters lipid profile in healthy and cardiomyopathy mouse hearts.

Galectin-3 (Gal3) is known to interact with glycans of proteins and lipids. In cardiovascular disease, the elevated expression of Gal3 mediates inflammation, hypertrophy and fibrosis. We explored the effect of Gal3 on the cardiac lipid profile in healthy mice or in mice with dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM).

Limitations and use of the Morpheus-V5 dual reporter virus in assessing interventions that target HIV latency.

HIV can persist indefinitely in latently infected CD4 + T-cells as an integrated provirus with limited or no viral transcription and expression of viral proteins. We further characterised a recently described dual reporter virus, Morpheus-V5, that expresses murine heat-stable antigen and mCherry in productively infected cells (which is HIV LTR dependent) and V5 and Nerve growth factor receptor (NGFR) in latently infected cells (which is HIV LTR independent). We demonstrated successful infection of resting and activated CD4 + T-cells using Morpheus-V5 pseudotyped with either X4, R5 or dual tropic envelope proteins.

From tear to repair: transcriptomic signatures related to rotator cuff tendon healing outcomes: a prospective clinical and laboratory study.

Background: Rotator cuff tears are a leading cause of shoulder pain and dysfunction, with variable healing after rotator cuff repair. Predicting tendon healing remains challenging, with failure rates reaching 21% at 2 years. This study employs transcriptomic analysis to identify gene pathways associated with tendon healing, with clinical and radiological correlation at 2 years postoperatively.

Identifying and assessing the capacity and experience of trial sites in low- and middle-income countries for high-quality randomised drug trials in maternal and perinatal health.

Existing international consortia for drug trials in maternal and perinatal health have focused largely on pragmatic trials using off-label medicines. This study aimed to identify and assess the capacity and experience of sites in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) for conducting trials for regulatory approval of medicines for pregnancy-related conditions. We systematically reviewed site assessment checklists across any disease area to develop a maternal trial site assessment checklist.

Mapping experiences of workplace stigma and discrimination within the lived-living experience of illicit drug use and bloodborne virus peer workforce: a scoping review.

Peer workers with lived-living experience of illicit drug use and/or bloodborne viruses are critical in linking community with health services and programs. Despite the increasing demand for, and recognition of, the value and contributions of peer workers, the risk of workplace stigma and discrimination due to their lived-living experience remains a persistent issue. This scoping review aims to map available literature about workplace stigma and discrimination against peer workers with lived-living experience of drug use or bloodborne virus.

Characterizing the quick-killing mechanism of action of azithromycin analogs against malaria parasites.

Drug resistance is steadily undermining the efficacy of frontline anti-malarials, highlighting the urgent need for novel therapies with alternative mechanisms of action. The chemical addition of different moieties to azithromycin yields compounds with improved quick-killing potency against malaria parasites, with the most active analogs typically containing a chloroquinoline group. Here, we investigated the quick-killing mechanism of five azithromycin analogs, two of which contain differentially oriented chloroquinoline moieties.

Perceived Impact of a Sonographer Educator in the Emergency Department (SEED) on Emergency Ultrasound (EUS) Training.

Objective: ACEM supports Emergency Ultrasound (EUS) training for all emergency physicians and recommends every department has a Clinical Lead for Ultrasound (CLUS) and, ideally, a Sonographer Educator in the Emergency Department (SEED). There remains an ongoing paucity of SEEDs in Australian EDs. To improve training, an ED-funded SEED was introduced at Alfred Health EDs in mid-2023.

A timeline of reckoning: Tracking the historical rise of antimicrobial resistance across HIV, TB, and malaria.

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the major health challenges of this century. Here, we provide an in-depth perspective on the evolution of antimicrobial resistance in three globally relevant infectious diseases, HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria. Specifically, we scrutinize the timelines between deployment and the subsequent emergence of resistance for all drugs that have been mobilized in the fight against these three diseases.

Using Online Media to Increase the Awareness and Uptake of Preexposure Prophylaxis for HIV Among Asian-Born Men Who Have Sex With Men Living in Australia: An Open-Label Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: HIV notifications have increased among Asian-born men who have sex with men (MSM) in Australia. However, most existing campaigns were not designed for this population. This study assessed the acceptability of using a community-based audio drama from our previous "designathon" to increase the awareness and uptake of preexposure prophylaxis (PrEP), as compared with written information on the PAN website (PrEP Access Now; PAN.

Optimization and Characterization of the Antimalarial Activity of -Aryl Acetamides that are Susceptible to Mutations in ROM8 and CSC1.

New antimalarials are needed due to the threat of emerging resistance against existing antimalarial therapies. A phenotypic screen uncovered the -aryl acetamide class that inhibits the development of asexual ring-stage parasites. The structure-activity relationship of this class was investigated, and key modifications were introduced that produced WEHI-326 with potent antimalarial activity.